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No more patterns: Under a new policy, nurses will wear solid-color scrubs in order to be more recognizable.
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BY JIM HALL
A nurse buying lunch in the Mary Washington Hospital cafeteria recently wore white scrub pants and a colorful scrub top, a printed fabric in bright red.
Her outfit was appropriate, but soon it won't be.
"I have a little time," she said, smiling.
Beginning Sept. 1, Mary Washington will adopt a "professional clinical attire" policy, better known as a dress code.
Patients, families and visitors will know instantly that the workers dressed in navy or white scrubs are nurses.
Hunter green scrubs will signal nursing assistants, technicians or unit secretaries.
"This is a pretty significant change for us," said Eileen L. Dohmann, vice president for nursing.
Hospitals in Virginia and elsewhere have adopted similar dress codes in recent years. For many, the change recalls an earlier era when nurses were easily recognized in their white dresses, white shoes and white cap.
At Mary Washington, the change will affect about 1,000 people, or 25 percent of the workforce, and has been greeted with mixed reviews.
"I think it's a good thing," said Vera Lloyd, a nurse on 4 South. "People don't know who they're dealing with. The person who cleans the room walks in, they think that's your nurse."
Michele Green, a certified nursing assistant on 5 South, said: "I'm definitely for the change. I think it will be a lot more professional."
Other nurses are opposed, or as Dohmann said, "Not everyone thinks change is a wonderful idea."
Most nurses wear "scrubs," the loose-fitting cotton pants and V-neck tunics. The tops come in a variety of bright colors and prints, or even cartoon characters, for those in pediatrics.
Plain blue or white, as required by the new code, will be "boring," one nurse said.
Nurses also complained that white will be hard to clean, and that they have a closet full of scrubs that soon will be obsolete. Replacing them will be expensive, they said.
(Some nurses asked that their names not be used because they didn't want to publicly criticize the new policy.)
The Mary Washington Hospital Foundation has agreed to pay for two sets of scrubs for every affected worker.
Homecare America, the medical supply store owned by MediCorp Health System, the hospital's parent company, earlier this month sponsored a show and sale of the new uniforms at the hospital.
Navy scrub tops sold for $16.95 at the event. Scrub pants cost $22.95, and a scrub jacket was $21.95. Nurses said they can find cheaper prices elsewhere.
Hospital officials hope that the dress code is the start of a building-wide palette, where workers are identified by the color of their clothing.
"There's just a different presence about having identifiable colors," said Barbara Kane, senior vice president and chief nursing officer.
Mary Washington already has the beginning of a color scheme. Those who draw blood, the phlebotomists, are dressed, appropriately, in red.
Workers who deliver food trays to the patients are in green shirts and black pants. Security guards and volunteers also wear uniforms.
Soon, the nurses will join them.
The idea, Dohmann said, is to give the nurses a recognizable look, a mark of respect and training, a measure of their place in the hospital hierarchy.
"How do patients know who's in their room, who's interacting with them, who they see in the hallway?" Dohmann asked.
In the modern hospital, up to 30 workers can walk into a patient's room during a stay. Many of these workers dress alike, often in colorful scrubs.
But these prints have become "gaudy," said Jeanne Maguire, chief nursing officer at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington.
"We look ridiculous," Maguire added.
The 334-bed hospital adopted a dress code in 2004. Nurses there wear white tops and colored pants.
"The only people taking care of patients in the hospital that wear white now are the nurses," Maguire said.
She said the change has been well received by patients, doctors and nurses.
"They feel good that they're the nurse, and they look different," she said. "They are seen as professionally dressed."
Staff librarian Craig Schulin contributed to this story.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
| The hospital's new dress code calls for RNs and LPNs to be the only workers dressed in white and/or navy scrub tops, pants and jackets.
CNAs and techs will be the only ones in hunter-green pants, tops and jackets. Unit secretaries will differ slightly with jackets of sandstone. The new policy does not specify the style or manufacturer of the required clothing, only the color. The hospital will relax the code on the last Friday of each month, when workers can wear whatever scrubs they want. Those who wear hospital-laundered scrubs, such as those in the operating room or the cardiac catheterization lab, are not affected by the policy. The new policy applies to workers at the Cancer Center of Virginia and at the new Stafford Hospital Center, when it opens. It does not affect the employees of Carriage Hill nursing home, the Fredericksburg Ambulatory Surgery Center, or those who work for MediCorp's hospice and home health units. --Jim Hall |
